Understanding Landing Pages

Before you can actually design the ideal landing page for your target audience, make sure you know what an ideal landing page looks like and what it does.

Sometimes called leadpages, landing pages are pages specifically designed to generate conversions. In more general terms, a landing page is any page where a user lands on your site – but for our purposes, we’re focusing on how they work in conjunction with paid ads and marketing campaigns. These landing pages have specific goals, typically focused around a single user action. For example:

Generating email leads

Selling a product

Selling a service

Booking tickets to an event

Requesting a quote

And much more

These pages need effective CTAs that focus on that single user action and an opt-in process.

Sadly, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to creating the ideal landing page. Every landing page is unique, serving a different purpose for a different target audience, but most feature an alluring, top-heavy “above the fold” section – that is, the section immediately visible when the page loads, like the literal “above the fold” section in a newspaper that attracts the most attention.

Clear CTAs and benefits are also common features, but how information is presented can vary wildly, depending on the market, audience, and service being offered.

Keep designs appealing, intuitive, and informational.

Improving Conversions with Smart Design

In the realm of online marketing, marketers tend to focus on layouts, information hierarchy, and persuasion principles. Designers focus on user experience, colours, typography, and stylistic elements to build an effective brand.

“So what?” you say. “That’s their job, it makes sense that they stick to their principles.”

You’re right! But when those two approaches aren’t working together, the result is a disjointed final product. Effectively using both in conjunction and cooperation with one another goes a long way towards creating better-looking, user-friendly websites that also persuade and convert.

This marketing/UX design for landing pages makes it easier for users to convert both visually and emotionally. If they like what they see and read, and there are no obstacles to clicking the big call-to-action button, then you are on your way to getting those leads and conversions you’ve been waiting for.

For a handy way to remember how to create a landing page that converts, remember this acronym:

C.O.N.V.E.R.T.S

C – Clear Call to Action

Sign up! Shop now! Donate now! Contact us! Try it!

These are all examples of calls to action that should be very visible and centralized on your landing page.

Your call to action should be a button that is a different, preferably contrasting colour from the rest of the page.

O – Offer

Offers are incentives you offer visitors for following your call to action. These should pull visitors into the conversion funnel by being directly related to your product or service.

Offers include:

Free versions of a product,

Whitepapers, or

A matching gift.

Free versions of a product,

Whitepapers, or

A matching gift.

N – Narrow Focus

Your landing page should be clear, simple, and should only focus on the task at hand—compelling them to make a conversion. The faster they can read your landing page, the better.

Make sure the header and side links don’t distract from the core purpose and leave administrative links at the bottom of the page. Your main visual element should keep the reader’s attention to the most important parts of the page.

In a more endearing way of putting it, Keep It Simple, Stupid.

V – Very Important Attributes

These should be two to five clearly listed value propositions, or important attributes, about how your product or service will be useful to your visitors.

The VIAs should also be described from the customer’s viewpoint, explaining the problems (pain points) these VIAs will solve.

E – Effective Headline

Your headline should also be in plain language, clearly explaining what the page is about. You don’t want visitors wondering, “What does this company actually do?”

R – Resolution-Savvy Layout

Since people visit pages on various devices with various screen sizes, how they see your landing page will be different than how you see it on your desktop computer screen.

Not sure how things are going? Measure your results and adjust strategy accordingly!

To avoid hiding the most important page elements on a smaller screen, especially a mobile device, keep the essentials near the centre-top of the page – above the fold.

If you want to improve your conversion rates, visitors should be able to see the logo, headline, visuals, and call to action clearly on any device.

T – Tidy Visuals

When it comes to visuals on a successful landing page, less is more. You want a page that loads quickly and has plenty of space, a visible font, and bullet points. A video can also help engage and inform visitors without taking up too much page space.

S – Social Proof

Lastly, you need to prove to your visitors that you’re worth it. The best proof? Real testimonials from real people. You can also include a list of customers, press mentions, and usage statistics to show how reliable and trustworthy you really are.

If you do include client logos, make sure these don’t distract from the call to action—think smaller, greyscale logos.

Don’t forget to test and monitor your landing page performance. If you find some elements aren’t working, keep these tips in mind, make changes when needed, and contact an online marketing agency to help you turn your landing pages into conversion machines.